


hunger

by moreworldliness



Category: DreamSMP (Minecraft Series)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, Exhaustion, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Silbings AU | Karl and Dream are Siblings, Sympathetic Manipulation, The InBetween - Freeform, mentioned starvation, the egg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29308506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreworldliness/pseuds/moreworldliness
Summary: He'd run from it - or more adequately, he'd tried.or:karl gets stuck in the egg, fights it with everything he has, but bad has other plans :)
Relationships: Karl Jacobs & BadBoyHalo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	hunger

**Author's Note:**

> i just  
> karl. egg.  
> i just like torturing my favourite characters okay

“Karl!”

He loathed that voice; how it echoed off of the walls, and the floors, and the small crevice within warm, sticky walls that he was trapped within; how it accentuated the skipping footsteps the other took towards wherever this dark hell was, within his fuzzy mind, and how it made the small creaking of chair stab him in the chest.

Karl opened his eyes shakily, barely wide enough to take in his surroundings. The red vines that swung around him to keep him in place were tight, and one had fallen over his right eye - he made an effort not to open that one, though the quiet voices he’d come to understand told him to. He refused, even if it made him shake with effort. His entire body was exhausted.

There was Bad.

“Karl! You’re awake this time! You were asleep last time I came to visit you .. must’ve been a week now. Are you hungry?”

The first time Bad had asked that question, Karl had struggled and tried to kick free. He’d sworn and done everything in his power to try and get away - he had been hungry, but he wasn’t going to give Bad that small victory. Now, his stomach growled, and he couldn’t deny it. Bad’s voice was almost soothing in the echoey nothingness that pulled apart his thoughts. There was no point in struggling, he had no energy to struggle.

Karl nodded.

Bad grinned.

“I have some food here … but I’m only going to give it to you once you stop being such a stubborn guy and give in! Remember our deal from last week-- well, last month? No food until you give in.”

Karl didn’t remember. He didn’t remember anything. He didn’t remember how he wound up here, or how long ago his last jump was. He didn’t remember the soft voice of Dream when they read bedtime stories to each other, and he didn’t remember the calming white of the Inbetween, and the voice that echoed in the rain. He didn’t remember joking around with Quackity on hot summer nights, by the lake, trying to cool off and relax. He didn’t remember the hum of his portals, or the crackle of the fire, or the smell of ink.

There was only exhaustion. There was only wherever this was, with whatever hell was infesting the underground area of L’Manburg, with the culmination of his failures.

Karl stared blankly.

Bad frowned, and somewhere in Karl’s depraved imagination, he swore he saw a flicker of concern in the other’s eyes. Karl wanted to laugh. He couldn’t.

“Karl … you really must be hungry and tired from fighting this much. Isn’t it painful? What could you possibly be fighting that hard for?”

His throat was dry, but his tongue was saturated with the memories he refused to use. They painted pictures in his words, for as loud as he could speak them, the hazy figure of Bad coming closer to listen.

“... I … I don’t know what I’m … I .. I just have to fight.”

Karl blinked, and Bad was right in front of him; again, that mirage of concern taunted him with basic human decency he wasn’t allowed to feel. Karl was dizzy - the other smelled of the surface, of fresh bread that was likely baked by Puffy; of cut grass, free of gunpowder and ethanol; of the cake that Eret sometimes baked for those that came by and kept him company.

Warmth. Family.

The place he was meant to be protecting.

“No-one can resist the Egg unless they have a reason. Did you know it asked for you by name, Karl? It said it recognized you, it said that you were a threat - it said that it wanted you on its side. Ant and Skeppy don’t understand, even though they’re with me. Sam doesn’t understand. But it wants  _ you _ , Karl - so  _ how and why  _ are you fighting?”

Bad placed his hand against Karl’s cheek. He was far too tired to ignore his impulses, melting into the warm touch - not warm, like the Egg. Warm, like hot chocolate. Warm like home. Warm like …

“... Dream ..”

“Huh?”

“... .. I want … I want Dream …  _ I want Dream … I want to go home … _ ”

For a moment, there was peace; his head pressed into Bad’s hand, tears unconsciously rolling down his cheeks, desperate for reprieve. For a moment, he felt the other’s thumb push away his tears, his breath hitch just for a second, the fuzz in his head pull back.

For a moment, he saw the Inbetween, and two people he vaguely recognized. They waved to him, with blurred features, and held their hands out towards him - loving, safe. They opened their mouths, called out to him blankly. Karl wanted to reply. He wanted to take a step forward.

“The Egg can give you all of that, Karl. Just give in. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

He felt himself break, and at once, he was tugged from the Inbetween with the force of an explosion. The two people watching him were erased within an instant, the floor dropping out from under him as thousands of arms pulled him in every direction they could think of. Tugged from his memories, will, and aspiration - ripped apart all at once in the most excruciating way possible, all thoughts wrapped up tightly and obliterated into nothing. He cried out pitifully, but there was no-one there to save him.

There had never been anyone there to save him. Who saved he who saved others?

No-one.

His hoodie was stripped of colour all at once, like he’d entered the Inbetween, sections steadily beginning to fill in with red. It burned, like entering water that you weren’t accustomed to yet. Everything went limp. 

It was over.

He was tired.

Bad’s voice brought him back from the edges of a pained sleep.

“There you go … are you hungry, Karl?”

He barely had the consciousness to speak.

“.. Yeah.”

Bad smiled.

“I’ll get you out of here then, and back home. You deserve something nice!

Welcome to the Eggpire, Karl.”


End file.
